Obama's Careful Speech, O's Tied for Division Lead: 5 Things 9/7

1. President Obama Addresses His Party - John Cassidy of The New Yorker described Barack Obama's speech as, "the speech of a front-runner who thinks he can win if the current dynamic is maintained." In the speech, he admitted that he has struggled to deal with the significant problems the country faced when he took office (recession, two wars, joblesness), but he insisted those problems could be solved with four more years with him as president.

2. Featured Blog Post - HoCo Rising on DNC's Final Night - Local blogger Tom Coale of HoCo Rising made a succint point about the last night of the Democratic National Convention. Coale wrote, "the overall tone of the evening had the slightest tinge of conciliation.  Not so much 'We messed up', but rather 'We know this didn't go the way that we had planned.'  That's good.  They needed to say that or else lose every voter that never really bought into the 'Hopey Changey' thing (that is the last time I will ever use a Palin quote in a non-sarcastic or non-sardonic manner).  These voters want a confession before they re-up."

3. Orioles Tied For Division Lead - The O's are tied with the Yankees for the American League East division lead at 77-60. (Editor's note: I'm a Red Sox fan. I grew up in Rhode Island and attended Boston University. I never thought I would write that sentence in September, but here we are...) And how relieving it must be for O's manager Buck Showalter, who in 1995 was pushed out by the Yankees after them being the only employer he ever knew. The New York Times has a story about Showalter this morning. In it Showalter says, "I have found a home in Baltimore; it is a good fit...And I approach every job as if it’s my last.”

4. Weather - Sunny with a high in the 80s, according to weather.com. Sounds wonderful.

5. What I'm Working On - The Dead Animals Trial - the jury has begun deliberations on whether to convict Elizabeth Lindenau of animal neglect. Yesterday, the of felony animal cruelty. Now she faces 18 counts of misdemeanor neglect, for failure to provide drink, to animals that died in a Columbia townhouse. She has testified she wasn't living in the townhouse. As I left court yesterday, I spoke with a few of her former friends. One of them, Jan Baker, described Lindenau as an "animal hoarder." Another, Vicki Clem, said Lindenau was keeping 70-80 animals inside her current residence at Hundred Drums Row in Columbia. Lindenau's attorney described the trial as "more of a persecution than a prosecution" and maintained that Lindenau didn't know about the condition of the animals at Lambeth Court. Expect a full story later today once a verdict is reached.

Happy Friday!